Spending the proverbial penny

 I am one of those unfortunate individuals who have what is sometimes called a "weak bladder". I think that with me at any rate this is partly psychological because if I find myself anywhere where there is no easy access to a toilet, I immediately want to "go" and get into a panic. The knowledge that there are a lot of people like me is cold comfort when I am struggling along the street of an evening when shops are shut and there is no public toilet in sight. So many eateries have those big scary signs which say "for patrons only" and well, when a girl's gotta wee, she's gotta wee somehow or other, even if she doesn't want to buy a coffee which will only make her want to wee again in an hour's time.

I was therefore intrigued to learn what the city of Bremen in North Germany is doing in this regard.  They have a scheme entitled "Nette Toilette" which translated roughly means "nice toilet" and you can use the rest rooms of any restaurant or cafe which has a sticker to this effect in the window. You are not obliged to buy anything. Wow! I wish more cities had this feature, it would save me many a frantic search. Participating restaurants and cafes get paid between €50 and €100 a month for providing this facility. A spokesperson for the city said that Bremen saves around €450,000 per year on the scheme compared to the upkeep of public toilets which were not always as clean as could be desired. From the point of view of the restaurants and cafes, it does direct more traffic to their premises even if not everyone actually sits down for a meal or a coffee. You can even download an app with a map of all the locations! That's what I call public service.

Click here if you understand German or simply want to view the map of free toilets in Bremen.

Bremen's free toilets (in German)
If you scroll down you will find a map giving the locations of the free toilets Nette Toilette.

This would be such a boon to me when I embark on my Christmas shopping next month. It's all psychological, I guess, but the knowledge that there are toilets easily reachable would be one of the main comforts to all that trekking around the shops!

This post is adapted from my original blog post entitled The Smallest Room - Facilitating the Facilities on my blog 
peggyomahonyromanceauthor.blogspot.ie 

Are You Listening?

When I was at school we had to study an essay by Charles Lamb entitled The Two Races of Men. He reckoned that humankind could be divided into two categories: the men who borrow and the men who lend. I remember that I really enjoyed his sense of humour and his remarks on the "despoilers of shelves" and on other borrowers who made notes in the margins so that the book came back with added value.
When it comes to conversation and listening to other people, I am inclined to think that there are two kinds: those who listen and those who do not.
We all know people who listen to what we have to say, are interested in it and in what has been happening to us since we last met. In our turn, we listen to them in the same way. Which means we belong to Those Who Listen. If we don't recognise ourselves in that description, it might be time to analyse our conversations with others.
The art of listening is a major advantage to us writers, because everyone has a story and everyone is interesting. Yes, there are people who will tell you the same thing every time you meet them or who will moan persistently about just everything, but even they can be entertaining if you learn to expect it and not be impatient. Personally, I try heading them off at the pass whenever I see an old story coming down the path at me. Sometimes it works, sometimes I just smile and listen. Mostly, though, I find other people fascinating, even those little quirks which can be irritating at times.
There are others of our acquaintance who if you were to say that you had just received the Breaking News that the moon is in fact just a large chunk of Cheddar cheese, proven by a bunch of renowned scientists, they would merely nod and say "yes, I know" without batting an eyelid and go on to tell you something about a rare cheese they discovered the other day. They are just not going to be surprised because they have most likely only heard "cheese" in what you said.
We all know people who don't wait for you to finish what you are saying because they want to jump right in there with their story. And there are the people who think they know what you are going to say so don't need to listen to you at all and are then amazed when, later on, they discover that you didn't in fact say that you bumped into Mick Jagger fifty years ago.  What you actually said was that you almost bumped into a Mick Jagger lookalike last week and you'd always thought no one made of flesh and blood could ever look like him.....
Humans are so diverse, irritating and likeable at the same time, that I guess we have to take everyone as we find them, mentally earmark the ones worthy telling a story to, and just enjoy everyone's conversation listeners and non-listeners alike.